API Management | Options | COTS

A Very Serious Senior Situation

There are many taxonomies of what defines a 'senior' engineer. Often, these include the following keywords: skills, practical experience, problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership.

Gregor Hohpe, in his book "The Software Architect Elevator" provided an analogy of a "three-legged stool": Skill, Impact, and Leadership.

You should continuously learn new skills, practice some, and drive the knowledge flow within your organization and communities. You will be bumped from the road if you do not learn new skills. You won't be perceived earnestly with no hands-on experience. And, with no knowledge sharing, there will be no evolution.

Commercial Off-the-shelf Solutions

Here, we defined that there is more than one solution for a generic problem: API Management | Toolbox.

Then, we reviewed what #GCP options we have available: API Management | Options | GCP.

And now, it is time to review a few other commercially available off-the-shelf solutions #cots for "Improving the Performance, Reliability, and Security of the System."

A quick search on the internet will give you a more or less similar list: Kong Gateway, Apache APISIX, Tyk, KrakenD, Apigee, Cloud Endpoints, Amazon API Gateway, MuleSoft, etc.

Let's review a few #COTS from the perspective of our extended list of abstractions (Reverse/Forward Proxy, Load Balancer, and API gateway).

Forward Proxy:

1. Microsoft Application Request Routing: is a proxy-based routing module that forwards HTTP requests to content servers based on HTTP headers, server variables, and load balance algorithms.
2. NGINX: While commonly used as a reverse proxy, NGINX can also be configured as a forward proxy.

Reverse Proxy:

1. NGINX: A versatile web server commonly used as a reverse proxy for load balancing, caching, and SSL termination.
2. Apache HTTP Server: Another web server that can be configured as a reverse proxy.

Load Balancer:

1. HAProxy: An open-source solution known for its high performance and reliability in distributing incoming network traffic.
2. F5 BIG-IP: A commercial load balancer with advanced application delivery, security, and optimization features.

API Gateway:

1. Apigee (by Google): A cloud-based API management platform offering security, analytics, and developer collaboration features.
2. AWS API Gateway: A fully managed service from Amazon Web Services for creating, publishing, and securing APIs.
3. Kong: An open-source API gateway with features like load balancing, authentication, and rate limiting
4. Spring Cloud Gateway: An open-source, Java-based API gateway developed as part of the Spring Cloud project, offering features like routing, filtering, and security

Is it possible for every organization to have a single person who knows about every solution and has hands-on experience?

It is OK not to know everything.

Summary

To make a good decision, you need a lot of information, and the best way to gain it - is to talk to people. Real "Seniority" is not about the quantity of years of experience. Seniority is only possible with knowledge sharing and community contribution.